Holiday in the Sun

SO now that Christmas is over and done with (at least in this hemisphere), we figured we should fill you all in on our exciting and warm(ish) holiday festivities. Since the weather felt very unchristmas-like, Jamie set up a lovely little Christmas tree with gold and red baubles-to get us in the spirit. After he had bought the decorations he commented that he was upset he couldn't find a Star of David for the tip of the tree; I pointed out that Jewish themed Christmas tree decorations don't exist... You may have seen from the photos that I also decorated stockings in hopes that the quality of $2 shop goods is high enough that we are able to take them with us to NY next year. Speaking of which, Jamie has sent in his application for the Sound Engineering School in midtown NYC! He was toying with the idea of applying to a less estabilished and cheaper program, but SAE definitely seems like the best option with a huge career network due to the school's locations throughout the world. NY also seems to work with my plans to work as a student advisor for study abroad programs at high schools or universities, not to mention it is currently the epicenter of our social network- most of our friends either live in or have plans to move to the city.

Anyway, back to our Christmas day goings-on: We started the morning as good son and daughter and skyped our parents in hopes of prolonging the christmas morning anticipation (and to catch up with our families of course). After bragging about the warm weather a bit, we exchanged gifts. Highlights included perfume and a new book for me and headphones and a photo album complete with printed NZ photos and commentary for Jamie. We realized we had a total of three Christmas evening invitations, but since the dinner we commited to was due to begin at 5, we sent our regrets to our respective co-workers. We were responsible for bringing dessert to our Chrismas dinner at the home of Jamie's co-worker's boyfriend, so I got to work on baking a cake. After a few hiccups (I don't bake much), I managed to produce a yummy, if a bit lopsided, chocolate strawberry cake and some Christmas cookies. We brought our goodies across town where we finally met the boyfriend, who is from Scotland, as well as his kiwi roommate who joined us for dinner and Jamie's canadian co-worker and her roommate. It was a truly international Chistmas. Rich cooked us quite the feast which we promptly worked off with hours of Wii tennis, bowling, boxing, and golf and an intense game of Cranium. We waddled home stuffed and full of Chrismas cheer just after midnight.

January is going to be a big month for us. Somehow I managed to get New Years Eve off work, so we'll have another holiday night to celebrate together. Bristol's staff holiday party is on January 2nd where tradition dictates a costume theme. Last year it was "rockstars," and this year its any getup beginning with the letter "R." I'm still undecided, but will let you all know. Jamie's stint at the Christmas shop ends in the next three weeks after the "Big Sale," which is apparently the Kirk's event of the year, after which he'll need to find a new job. Hopefully the tourist season won't make that too difficult. We'll also need to start looking for a new apartment, as our landlords have informed us of the $10 raise in rent. We're hoping to find a place a bit cheaper and not too far out of town since we've become so accustomed to the conveniences of living close by. January also brings my grandmother's visit (yay!) and of course our big Aussie adventure.

We hope you all had a very merry Christmas and/or a Happy Hanukkah and send our best wishes for the new year!